Smoke
by silentdeath838
Summary: Two high school students escape building fire only to arrive at Helgen during a dragon attack. First fic, hope to be able to write more, not getting my hopes up about anything.
1. Chapter 1

The smoke was blinding and the heat unbearable as I stumbled though the burning building. A quiet school day had somehow turned into hell. I huddled into my corner and prayed that the heat would stop. I decided to take a chance and crawled to the entrance of the room, the entire science block was in flames and my asthma was literally killing me, the entire hallway leading to my position was in flames but I could see people on the other end escaping through the staircase that was not on fire. I screamed out hoping to all the gods they would hear me but only one did. I watched as the one person that I could possibly hate more than my brother started towards me, a piece of the upstairs flooring came down beside her head hurrying her up as she slowly made her way towards me minding the flames as she did. "Ella" I shouted "help me I need to get out of this smoke" I coughed to her." She seemed to understand and started moving to a window, I followed and helped her break the thin glass, I knew we were three floors up but still I beat at that glass with hope. "We have to get out this way Henry" she shouted over her shoulder, I nodded at her unwilling to speak for fear of losing my precious supply of air in my lungs. We climbed through the window fully expecting to fall to our deaths but still we hung onto those burning hot stones, Finally I could take it no longer, I let go of the window and fell. It all happened in slow motion, Ella was screaming something unintelligible over the roar of the crackle of the flames and the roar of the wind passing my ears, and then she fell too just seconds after me.

* * *

The first thing that I realized when I was jolted from my daze by a nearby groan was that I was still alive and lying on something cold and prickly. I still couldn't see through my smoke teared eyes but I could make out that much of what was above me was green, I could feel that the air around me was freezing, I understood in a few seconds that the prickly feeling was the prickle of pine cones and that the green roof above me was in-fact a clump of trees but there was no explanation for feeling cold in the middle of an Australian February. It occurred to me that I had been woken by a groan and received a-thousand angry complaints from my body when I turned in the direction of the groan, Ella was covered in burns and her clothes were holed and smoking, it looked like she had not managed the fall too well as her right leg was bent crooked. I crawled over to her and tried to wake her up, she stirred after a while and immediately sat up, butting my head aside and shifting her broken leg, she immediately lay back down again screaming at the sudden movement of her broken leg. She must have heard me groaning at the her suddenly butting my head and slowly moved her neck around to see me. I was of Chinese background and my skin was pale like the northerners, my eyes and hair were brown as was usual for people of my ethnicity, I was a tall and thin teenager with long pointed features and long hair to go with them. I glared at Ella and picked myself up with a lot of pained grunting and leaned against a tree to steady myself, once I felt strong enough to be able to stand and walk I moved over to Ella and tried to help her to her feet but she beat my hand away and would not let me help her up. "No please it hurts" she moaned, "we have to get you some help your arms are burnt and your leg is broken," I said but I knew she would not listen, she never listened to any but herself and most certainly would not listen to me, the reckless and foolish boy with matching company, the lazy but brilliant boy that could be so much more. She must have considered me a waste of intelligence, and now she was refusing my help, "come on I urged we can't sit here and die because your leg hurts." Finally she relented and we started off in a direction that guessed was south judging by where the sun was in the sky. We had been travelling for about half an hour when Ella suddenly said to me "Henry do you hear voices nearby," cocking an ear I replied "yes maybe they will be able to help your leg." Another ten minutes down the road and we started to smell smoke and berries mixed with the sound of endless chatter and horse hoofs over cobbles. I walked over to the sign that told what appeared to be the name of the village, as soon as I caught sight of the sign my face turned ashen, "Ella I know where we are."

Helgen.

**first fic so do tell me anything I have done wrong. I am writing this on an iPod so do tell me of any stupid errors that my apple autocorrect will probably have made. tell me if the story is good, bad or go shoot yourself, if it is the first one tell me what I can add for the next chapters, if it is the second tell me what I can improve as well as what you want for the next chapters and as for the last one don't hold your breath.**

**reviews please.**


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter 2**

**Thank you Wolf no naku koro ni for your review and I will try to do what I can. I have not come across this glitch that you speak of but I will try to incorporate something that something like that in the future. Also to clarify Henry has played Skyrim before when he was on Earth and Ella is a stuck up teenage girl who will use her intellect to rub even the smallest things into your face and both characters are 15. Here you go.**

We walked through the gateway in the wake of some carts, I tried to get Ella to leave but she was intent on at least speaking to some of the locals.  
"We need to know where we are and what has happened," she snapped at me, I considered leaving her and letting her take her chances with the massive dragon attack that was soon to come. Finally she was done and came over to me and said "apparently we are in a place called Skyrim, it sounds familiar." I took off my wristwatch and handed it over the counter for a minor healing potion, the girl at the counter looked at the object strangely but handed me the potion none the less. "Here you need to be able to walk now drink this," I said handing over the bottle of red liquid. She stared at me curiously but took the bottle gingerly as though the bottle contained boiling water. "We do not have much time now we need to hurry," I said as she finished the last bits of the potion. "My leg doesn't feel any different" she said. "Try walking on it" I suggested, moving cautiously she slowly stood up and tested her previously broken leg, "how did you do that, I didn't even feel a thing."

"ROAR."

The first call of Alduin echoed around the mountains that surrounded Helgen. "Okay now we really need to get out of here," I whispered to Ella. But it was too late, Alduin, Bane of Kings descended from the heavens and landed on the roof of one of the towers. "Guards get the townspeople to safety" I vaguely heard the man I knew to be General Tullius shout. Over the roar of the explosions and flames I shouted to Ella "come on we have to move now." Holding hands lest we lose each other in the chaos and commotion we ran down to the execution grounds, "follow the Imperial in rags" I shouted in her ear "she's special" I shouted at her crazy look. We took off after the Imperial who was now following the stormcloak Ralof into the tower, we made it just in time before Ralof closed the door behind us.

"Ella we have to get your of here now" I said just as I heard Ulfric finish his legends don't burn down villages reply to Ralof. We set off after the still silent Imperial who obviously didn't want to hang around listening to the stormcloaks arguing. I held Ella back when we neared the middle of the tower knowing the fate of the stormcloak soldier who was shifting rubble.

"Get back" I said grabbing Ella back just as the dragon burst through and roasted the unfortunate man alive. "Come on we'll jump through to the tavern over there." I said pointing to a gap in the roof of the burning building that occupied the space next to the tower." Ella nodded her agreement and silently jumped followed by the Imperial woman who still had not uttered a word.

All the house was filled with billowing clouds of black smoke and our eyes watered held open only by the will to get out of this town of horrors. I looked through the smoke and saw the imperial woman running off beside the tower with Hadvar. Grabbing hold of Ella's hand we quickly caught up with them and entered the keep with Hadvar.

"Looks like we're the only ones who made it" said Hadvar to us all, "Do you really think that was a dragon, the bringers of the end times, come on lets get those binds off you" he finished gesturing to the imperial with his dagger. A look of apprehension passed over the Imperials face as she walked over to the Imperial who had not half and hour ago been lining her up for the headsman's ax. With a final look at us she held her hands up for Hadvar to free. " Check the chests you two there might be some armour in there for you and give some of those swords a few swings" Hadvar said before walking over to the chest in the corner beside the door and emptying it of its contents. "Ella come on we need to protect ourselves although I doubt any of this armour would fit us properly.

I was right the armour hung off us and was definitely made for a more bulky man but worst of all the armour seemed to have also been made for a shorter man than me. I was tall compared to most people my age but this armour hung down to just below my midsection where it should have come down about ten centimetres below my waist, I looked at Ella and she looked equally ridiculous. "Ha ha ha ha ha ha" I heard a slight feminine voice laugh "you two look ridiculous in armour" I turned to see that it was in fact the imperial woman who had spoken. "Here let me help you" she said taking Hadvar's dagger she then sliced some of the leather that ran down the side of the leather cuirass I was wearing and used the straps along the side to hold the armour together she then took the leather and placed it in one of the many pouches that I hadn't noticed along the waist of my leather armoured pants, after finishing with my armour she then repeated the same process with Ella's armour, "here I swiped these two spare swords from the rack over there see if you can get some use out of it." And with that she went to join Hadvar beside the door, I didn't have the strength to hold one of these swords one handed but luckily it had been a hobby of mine to learn to fight with two-handed short swords since childhood, Ella had no such advantage and was struggling to lift the heavy iron sword into a fighting position. "Here keep this in your scabbard and stay behind those two, I am not much better than you at holding this heavy chunk of iron but at least I can use it."

Hadvar must have had an enormous sense of patience at the time it took Ella and myself to prepare ourselves but when we finally joined Hadvar and the imperial at the door he wordlessly opened it and started towards the grilled entrance at the end of the passageway, "halt" I said " I hear stormcloaks in the other room" I said not telling them the real reason behind how I knew they were there. "Perhaps we can reason with them" Hadvar suggested but I quickly replied saying that they are not going to do that now so the stormcloaks had no warning when we all burst into the room and started hacking the two stormcloaks apart. Ella wretched in a corner and I tried not to look at the sight of the blood and intestines spilling out of the hole I had rent in the nordic woman's stomach. Hadvar had quickly taken care of the other man who was wielding an ax but had no room to swing it when Hadvar got in close enough to use his sword. "Are you alright I said approaching the hunched up shivering form of Ella, "no I am not alright, what is happening, where are we, you just killed a person and you aren't even looking at her" Hadvar came over to use to help me out. "Girl, this must have been your first fight so you are a bit shocked, you are in Skyrim though how you don't know where you are when you are in the middle of the province is unknown to me and last of all that woman your friend killed has her guts spilling out onto the floor and even I am having trouble looking at her."

After a few more words and many more minutes Ella physically calmed down and stood up, it was then that I noticed there were three bodies lying on the ground not two and two of them were female. "What happened to the imperial woman" I said quickly to Hadvar. The look he gave me was haunting. "She's dead he said and the words were worse than the sight of her growing pool of blood. "Oh," was all I managed to say. "Well this complicates things" I said to Ella beside me.

**Yes, yes I killed the Dragonborn but honestly you should have seen it coming, I mean why else would I leave her without a name. Anyway I no have to think of a new Dragonborn to replace her with. Any suggestions are welcome.**


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3

Riverwood was a boring village, the best thing I can say about it probably is that at least it doesn't pretend its a city like Morthal does. Here the only news is the two men Ralof and Hadvar joining the different sides of the war, the merchants sister playing off her two suitors against each other and the enormous black dragon that flew over the village heading for Whiterun. The walk to Riverwood after parting ways with Hadvar on the road had been uneventful apart from a lone wolf that I managed to kill by stuffing a deathbell down it's throat while it was preparing to kill me. Needless to say, for a weak and scrawny human I was battered and bruised just from killing one wolf but that wasn't what was on my mind, _"the Dragonborn is dead, or at least the person who was supposed to become the dragonborn is dead, what is going to happen now, the least I can hope for is that Alduin will take his time with his attacks like he seems to do on the computer back on Earth."_

Riverwood finally came into sight and I wasn't in the least surprised by the sight of Hadvar calmly talking to Alvor as he sharpened an iron sword on the grindstone. "Finally I thought you two wouldn't make it" exclaimed Hadvar on seeing us enter the smithy behind him. "Alvor these are the two who helped me escape Helgen from the dragon attack," he lied flawlessly to his uncle, we had mostly followed him through the labyrinth of caves that wound underneath Helgen and the only claim I had to helping him escape Helgen was partially hacking off the leg of a frostbite spider about to lunge at Hadvar's unprotected back, Ella in fact did more with the sparks spell book that she found in the torture chamber. That reminded me, Ella had not uttered a word since her breakdown in the keep and her pale face had started to worry me.

"Hey is you friend okay" Hadvar's words awoke me from my daydreaming and I immediately spun around to see Ella's pale form leaning against the table. "Oh gods" I said as I saw Ella's legs buckle and her head come to rest in Hadvar's arms.

* * *

"_What now"_ was all that Lydia thought as she observed the smoke rising from behind the mountains, the gatehouse of Whiterun city afforded her an excellent view of the billowing black clouds. "_Looks to be about the Helgen area". _Lydia hated it when these sorts of things came up albeit they happened rarely, but as captain of the guard it was Lydia's duty to lead the first patrol out to secure the area and prepare a report for the Jarl no matter if it was a Bandit raid down to an accident at the bakers oven. But that isn't to say that there were not upsides to Lydia's job, far from it, apart from General Caius, Lydia was the only guard to get an individual room in the guards barracks and she got much better pay than the common guards not to mention the enormous amount of respect she got from the guards and civilians. Lydia's job sucked._  
_

"Hey Lydia whats that over there" she heard a voice call out to her from behind her. She immediately stood to attention as she recognized the aging General Caius. "Looks like another blasted bandit raid" she replied to her kindly superior, "and I can guarantee that this lot are definitely going to be more fun to track down and slaughter than the last bunch" she replied sarcastically to Caius. "Now now Lydia is that any way to go about your job" was the stern reply from the general, "I am assigning you ten men to investigate, try to get at least half of them back uninjured." This was going to be a fun week.

* * *

In the four days I had been in Alvor's house caring for Ella much had happened, Hadvar left to make his report to Solitude, a troop of soldiers passed and I was surprised to see Lydia was leading them, I told Alvor what I had learnt in books of metal working when we still on Earth and in reward Alvor crafted me a beautiful steel hauberk of chain mail with a matching two handed short sword. Ella had gradually gotten over the shock of this new world, the colour had returned to her cheeks and she was helping Alvor's wife around the house as I taught Alvor the ways of making steel stronger by aligning the molecules. With the money I made at the forge I bought some more spell books for Ella as she had seemed to take quite quickly to spell casting. In the meantime I learnt archery from Faendal behind the lumber mill, I always made sure that I didn't lose a single one of my small supply of iron arrows.

At last after five days in bed Ella said that she felt able to move on, I had been telling her that we couldn't stay here we have to tell the Jarl in Whiterun what happened to Helgen, and so after five days in Riverwood we finally left, I still couldn't shoot an arrow worth a damn but I had managed to teach Alvor an entirely new method of metal working, "_He'll become rich one day with the quality of his metal working"_ I thought as I accepted the map of Skyrim's provinces and cities from Alvor, Alvor had not been much of an adventurer so it was mostly marked with Skyrim's major cities, Riverwood and Helgen.

We set out for Helgen with the sun still rising over Riverwood. We took the path behind the lumber mill and headed to the hills that bordered Whiterun. Ella took care of the wolves along the pathway quite quickly with a burst of flame, although I noticed the tear that slid down her cheek after having made sure it was dead. As we crested the hill, the tall roof of Dragonsreach came into view out of the disappearing morning mist. "Come on," I said to Ella, "We're almost there." Ella had been questioning me about this place all along the walk from Riverwood and I had been trying to tell her as much as I could glad to see her finally talking, and to me of all people. As we neared the first farm outside of Whiterun I saw the forms of the people I knew to be the Companions struggling with a giant. Ella hurriedly shot off a few bolts of her sparks spell at the giant's head which stopped its brain dead. Now the good news about our intervention had been that the fight had been ended very quickly and the giant now lay dead, the bad news, the giant had fallen on top of the legs of a certain Huntress who was screaming bloody murder at the two of us. "_Way to introduce ourselves to a pack of werewolves" _I thought to myself as I pulled out my sword and started hacking at the giant's limbs in an effort to free the Huntress, "_not a bad way to introduce ourselves at all"_.

**Now I have a choice here. I could make the Companions the most friendly bunch of people who are very thankful for helping them take down a giant or I could make them a vengeful pack of werewolves who want to avenge Aela's legs. I wonder which one I will choose. Welcome to any suggestions so long as they are not stupid.**


End file.
